


Dragged Along

by Sifuzuko



Series: Zukka Midwest AU Drabbles [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Kings Island, M/M, Midwest AU, Rollercoasters, Theme Park AU, no beta because i'm too chicken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26497285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sifuzuko/pseuds/Sifuzuko
Summary: Zuko hasn't been to a theme park in years, and he doesn't really enjoy them. But he'll do almost anything for his boyfriend.~~Another piece of the Midwest AU that AO3 user snowandfire and I have been working on <3
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zukka Midwest AU Drabbles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926418
Comments: 3
Kudos: 62





	Dragged Along

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowandfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowandfire/gifts).



Zuko had never been to King’s Island before, but Sokka and Katara had spent the last two and a half hours telling him out how great it was. They had listed a dozen different rides and rollercoasters that they just had to ride, and Zuko couldn’t keep up. He, Sokka, Katara, Aang, Suki, and Toph were making the drive to Ohio for a long weekend in honor of Sokka’s birthday. Apparently, Hakoda used to bring Sokka and Katara to King’s Island every summer and they would stay at the neighboring Great Wolf Lodge. They spoke of family vacations full of laughter, love, and plenty of junk food.

To be honest, Zuko had never really been fond of amusement parks. He had visited Holiday World a couple of times with his mom, but the coasters were so big that they scared him. They wound up spending the whole day at the water park instead. His mom liked the park because they had free soda and sunscreen for all the visitors. Zuko only liked it because it was in the most ridiculously named town: Santa Claus, Indiana. They visited Holiday World a few times by themselves, but then one summer Azula was tall enough to ride the rides, so Ursa had brought her along too. Azula ruined everything, as was the standard for her. All of the attention was on her the entire day, and they had to ride all of the rides Azula wanted to ride. At the end of the day, Azula whined the whole way home, and claimed that she wasn’t coming along next time. This made Zuko extremely happy. He treasured his one-on-one trips with his mom. But then again, he didn’t know that they would never get another trip together.

Zuko’s plan for the weekend was to ride a few rides and then convince the gang to spend the rest of the day at the pool. Or at least to convince Sokka to spend the rest of the day at the pool. But Sokka was Mr. Plan Guy, and he had already downloaded the app and was avidly planning the order in which they would ride every. single. ride. There were a surprisingly large number of rides too. He would occasionally ask about one, and without fail one of his friends would respond with “Oh that’s my absolute favorite!”. Sokka claimed his favorite was called Diamondback, and Katara listed some ride called the Backlot Stunt Coaster. When Suki started raving about a wooden coaster called The Beast, Toph launched into an entire tirade about a coaster by a similar name that was apparently torn down after too many people suffered serious injuries on it. Aang cheerfully adds that his favorite was a ride called the Firehawk that suspended you over the ground on your stomach so you felt like you were flying. Zuko silently thanked Agni when he continued that it had been closed down a few years previously.

“We’re here!” Aang announced as they pulled into a large parking lot. Zuko looked around at the entrance turnstiles. Everything looked like your standard amusement park so far, except… was that the Eiffel Tower? Before Zuko had the chance to comment, Sokka had grabbed him by the hand and yanked him toward the entrance. Once they were inside, Zuko was only able to get the briefest of glimpses of a large reflection pool before they were off toward their first stop: Invertigo. After the ride, Zuko was extremely happy that he had skipped breakfast that day. If he hadn’t, his day would likely have ended then and there. Slowly, the gang made their way around the park. They hopped from ride to ride with relative ease. This park seemed to not be extremely busy. Most of the waits only seemed to be 10 or 15 minutes. 

By noon the entire group was starving, so they headed back to the main strip to grab a pizza and take a bit of a break. 

“So, what’s been your favorite ride so far, Zuko?” Suki asked between bites of her pepperoni pizza.

“Um. Well, I’m not really a coaster person,” Zuko was thinking back on the traumatic experience of riding an extremely tipsy-turvy coaster an hour earlier, “so I guess I would have to say the river rapids. Those were pretty fun”.

Sokka rolled his eyes at this, “Cmon, you seemed to really enjoy that last coaster!” Zuko had in fact hated that last coaster. It was an old wooden coaster that was meant to be run two trains at a time in a race. But the ride had gotten so rough over the years that they couldn’t run the trains together for the safety of the guests. Zuko was almost positive that he had dislocated his shoulder when the ride slammed him into Sokka.

The rest of the day went relatively smoothly. Zuko in fact did not succeed in drawing Sokka away to the water park, but instead Sokka dragged Zuko to a midway-esque area of the park that was just carnival games as far as the eye could see. They play games for about an hour, and much like he had on their first date, Sokka presents Zuko with another stuffed turtleduck. As it approached sunset, Sokka and Zuko broke off from the rest of the group. 

Zuko was lead back to the central plaza and up the elevator of the Eiffel Tower replica (he still had no idea why it was here). They got to the top right as the sun started setting, and it was one of those once-in-a-blue moon Midwest sunsets. The sky turned shades of orange, pink, and purple that Zuko didn’t even think possible. A light breeze blew through and Zuko snuggled into Sokka’s side.

“You know, it means a lot that you came with us today. I know that you sometimes feel uncomfortable with a big group of us, and you willingly signed up for an entire weekend of that,” Sokka’s voice was quiet, and he was watching the sunset rather than Zuko. “I just wanted to tell you that I think you’re really amazing, and I care about you a lot. I’m glad you’re here”.

Instead of responding, Zuko reached up to cup Sokka’s cheek and pulled him in for a kiss. They stayed that way for a few minutes longer. Eventually, Sokka reluctantly informed him that they had to go back and meet the group for the fireworks. Zuko grasped Sokka’s hand and they headed back towards the elevator.

**Author's Note:**

> Me projecting my love of midwestern amusement parks onto the gaang? More likely than you'd think.
> 
> Come visit me on tumblr @sifuzuko!


End file.
